Sunday, August 23, 2015

MARVEL TEAM-UP BY CLAREMONT & BYRNE

What’s this? I haven’t finished the ongoing IRON FIST review series, but I’m announcing something new? Believe it, Marvelites! Back when I first jumped into this project, I decided to go with a double dose of vintage Claremont/Byrne when the proper moment came. See, just as their run on IRON FIST was coming to its end, Byrne joined Claremont -- already the regular writer of MARVEL TEAM-UP -- for a run on another venerable Marvel franchise: Spider-Man.

(What, you thought they did something else together in the seventies? I'm pretty sure it was just IRON FIST and MTU…)

The Claremont/Byrne TEAM-UP issues were collected in 2011 in a trade paperback titled SPIDER-MAN: MARVEL TEAM-UP, which I’ll be using for this project (along with a copy of the Marvel/Dynamite SPIDER-MAN/RED SONJA hardcover which contains MTU #79, the only issue not in the TEAM-UP collection). Beginning tomorrow, I’ll add MTU to the rotation, alternating issues with the IRON FIST installment from the corresponding month. IRON FIST isn’t long for this world, however, as it was canceled with issue 15. But Claremont and Byrne continued the Living Weapon’s story in MTU, before wrapping it up in POWER MAN issues 48 – 50, all of which we will cover here as well thanks to the POWER MAN AND IRON FIST EPIC COLLECTION volume 1.

So, bear with me, because I think this’ll be fun: Tomorrow will bring us MARVEL TEAM-UP #59 from July of 1977 (There was no IRON FIST in July, as the series was bi-monthly at this time). Then on Wednesday and next Monday we’ll see IRON FIST #14 and MTU #60, both from August of that year. The series will continue, following that model, until IRON FIST ends in a couple weeks. But not long after, those three POWER MAN issues will enter the rotation with TEAM-UP, and after they’ve run their course, the review series which started dedicated solely to IRON FIST will continue and conclude as a MARVEL TEAM-UP by Claremont & Byrne series.

(And remember, if you’re ever wondering about the cover month/year of an issue, check my tags at the bottom of the post.)

As a kid I had a few of their issues in MARVEL TALES reprints, but this trade was my first experience with the whole run.

I bought the MTU trade new, though at a discount, but the Sonja was even cheaper. Though it's a hardcover, the SPIDER-MAN/RED SONJA collection was only about five bucks (new!) from the Amazon Marketplace. I think it cost me less than the trade of the same material was going for at the time.